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"Did you find anything that caused a negative reaction within the confines of the home? Anything that sparked a sense of darkness or stress or an item that attempted to play on one's feelings?"
Elaine's questions were fired off rapidly and in a tone of voice that said she was not to be questioned in response. Harry could hear the urgency in her voice as they looked — once more — at the corpse of Grindelwald that was still nought but a dozen or so feet away from where they currently were.
McMacson shook his head, perplexed. "No, I can't say we did. There was nothing that seemed to speak negatively to us that I can recall. I don't think we noticed anything that was inherently dark either, but I don't think items like that would be just out in the open for anybody to accidentally activate by touch or what have you… is there something that we should be looking for?"
"Search the house carefully, and don't let anybody be alone. If you find anything that you're unsure about, send a missive for Harry and I — our elf, Laddey, will answer your call and seek us out so that we can deal with it in your stead," — Elaine paused and the aforementioned house elf appeared right as he was called, and immediately, she addressed him. — "Laddey, this is the Director of Magical Law Enforcement McMacson. Should he call you, answer immediately."
Laddey nodded with wide eyes as he surveyed the brutalised property. "Yes, Lady Gaunt."
Elaine nodded and folded her arms as McMacson and the others began to enter the house, and once they were gone, she finally turned to look back at Harry. "We're going to be working against the clock from henceforth. Grindelwald's made a Horcrux, possibly even two or three if he's mad enough to try — we have to find them and destroy them so that the remnants of his being are unchained and sent to wherever it is he'll soon call home forever."
"Two or Three? Unchained?" Harry asked; he was confused, and at the same time, he felt as if he could vaguely recall something similar to this. It was hard to remember with all of the recent happenings especially, but from the little that he genuinely could remember, a Horcrux was not something that he, nor anybody, should ever mess around with.
There was always that conflict that could arise between any group of friends or family; dark magic versus light magic. It was easy to get into, but as far as Harry could recall, the sort of magic that Elaine just mentioned was truly vile. There was something about cannibalism or murder, in addition to a ritual. Truth be told since he had killed Grindelwald, he hadn't exactly felt like himself either.
"Yes, two or three Horcruxes if he was crazy enough to try and attempt it. I would say he was, by the way. He's weaker and his body shows the signs of having risen from the likes of one," Elaine pointed at his corpse before she grabbed his hand and started them off back whence they had originally come from and in a near-sprint.
"Where are we headed to?" Harry asked between breaths as they sprinted along an old dirt path that had led them to the home.
Elaine only answered when they were another half a minute or so away from where he had spoken. She paused, grabbed his hand more firmly and closed her eyes tight. "I wanted us away from the anti-apparation and anti-portkey fixings so that we're able to go wherever it is that we think his Horcruxes are."
Harry gave it to her, that was a smart and reasonable move. "Where are we going, then?"
It was then that Elaine scrunched up her face in thought and annoyance. "I don't know for certain," she said in her deeper, more authoritative voice; her annoyance was genuine, he figured out. "If I had the location of his Horcrux or Horcruxes, it would be a simple matter of apparating wherever that location is and destroying it by way of fiendfyre."
"So we're a bit stuck," Harry commented as he huffed and furrowed his brows in thought. "Why don't we check the grounds for magic if they're taking care of the house itself?"
"We'll leave that to them. Think, my love — where mattered most to Grindelwald?" Elaine countered as her hands fell to her hips.
He paused as she began to pace. She was impatient and it was starting to show. His idea was a bit stupid, he would admit, considering what they had just done but it made the most sense to him.
"We could bring his body out here and search it while we're out of the magic or right at the edge so that we'd have time to react if anything happens? Aren't the Potters and the Abbotts close too? We could check with them and see if they're aware of anything… it's pretty odd that they didn't know he was staying here with his followers now that I think about it," Harry shook his head.
The thought that they were so oblivious was odd, but what else could it be?
Grindelwald, the craziest and most bloodthirsty Dark Lord in centuries, was staying in your village and you're not aware of it?
"There was another family that was here too," Elaine said suddenly as she stopped her pacing and turned to look at him. "Dumbledore's family called this place home. He spoke rarely about it, and typically only with close family friends or those that he truly wished to bond with. I only ever overheard him speaking about this place. I believe he was even put to rest here, now that I think about it."
"You want us to check his family's house? Isn't somebody staying in it?"
Elaine shook her head at his questions. "I don't want us to check his family's house, I want us to check their graves and his included. There were rumours of an unsavoury nature about the Professor during his life, rumours that were related to his sickness and why he couldn't initially face off against Grindelwald in the first place. I suppose now's a perfect time to check."
"We'll look for signs of magic and if we find none, we leave. We're not here to disturb the dead," Harry said back to her as they slowly began to move towards the centre, where the old cemetery was.
"The dead are dead, they don't care about the worm-ridden clothes they were buried in or the few trinkets laid in the coffin with them," Elaine countered with a roll of her eyes and snort-laugh. "I don't care much for their meagre belongings either, darling. I wish to see their secrets should they have any, and if not, we'll go to where we need to."
"Where's that?" Harry asked, bemused.
"We'll go to his home and that of their neighbour's," Elaine said with a polite smile as her voice gave way to sweet and innocent. "I know much more about Dumbledore's life than you might think. He was a private man, but few can keep secrets when they were younger and foolish, and unfortunately for him, that time went the same for our dear professor as it went for most of those we currently consider our friends."
Harry nodded a few times at her words. He knew there was extra information that she wasn't saying, and while he was interested, he didn't care all that much. It wouldn't be too much longer before the pair were at their destination, and once that happened, then he could ask her about what he wished to know. They had plenty of time, and Grindelwald, well, he didn't.
Soon enough, he reckoned the man's soul would be destroyed if Elaine was right and if she wasn't, time could only tell when he'd make a return with nearly all of his followers dead or imprisoned.
As they drew closer to the cemetery, one thing was made very apparent to them; it wasn't visited or minded all that much. There were a few graves that were nought but rubble, leaves and a few bits of snow sprinkled over them. It was a sorry state of affairs in the cemetery, and it was eerie too. The wind was whipping, creating a howling-like sound and the entirety of the place was empty.
There were no benches for people to sit and remember their loved ones at. Not one grave had offerings, be it flowers or candy or chocolate.
"It's a good deal more arrogant and gaudy than I would have thought," Elaine remarked, perhaps a hint of how impressed she was in her voice.
Harry looked at what she was looking at and immediately, he had to agree. There was a life-sized statue of Dumbledore staring at them. The man had a steely resolve and his wand in his hand as he stood over the entrance to a mausoleum. Whoever had made it had known the man well to make it, but to Harry, it didn't portray the kindness or warmth that Dumbledore had often had for him.
The man, in another life, had been a grandfather to Harry. It felt strange to see him dead at so young an age, and yet, he had fallen to protect the lives of many whilst he was sick and weak. If that sickness hadn't done the damage that it had, he would still be standing and he would know where the Horcruxes were so long as the rumours had half the truth that was suggested about him and Grindelwald.
Of course, Corene and Elaine would know about that too. There was precious little that ever escaped the notice of those two, especially when they joined together to truly figure something out.
"I don't think he would have liked it all that much," Harry said as they slowly crept closer to it, their wands now raised.
"Maybe that was why whoever had it made did so," Elaine suggested before she started muttering spells under her breath, a great many of them and said expediently so that she could get through as many as possible.
It was pretty impressive.
In the meantime and whilst she did that, Harry made sure to watch their rear and sides. There were so many different places somebody could hide; behind mausoleums, tombstones, statues, sculptures, hedges, and sheds, there was just about anything you could want for cover back here. It was making him nervous, especially if Grindelwald could just pop out at any given moment.
He wasn't sure if it worked quite like that, but to him, it might as well have.
"There are wards over his coffin," Elaine said quietly, breaking the silence. "They're quite powerful. More so than I would have thought. I'm unsure if they're here to keep violators away or if they've been put here to keep something safe."
"There's no easy way to tell?" Harry asked; she was the ward and rune master, after all. Those were two topics he had avoided in his original time and two topics that he considered — after taking them — exceptionally boring and difficult, but they could be deadly helpful if used by somebody who knew what they were doing.
That person just wasn't him.
"No, there's no way to tell short of destroying the wards and busting in so that we might take a glance at what's been hidden away inside," Elaine answered with an amused lilt in her voice.
"Fine. We'll go in and check. Do you think he would have kept something that important just laying in a stone coffin inside of a stone box next to a person that was applauded as a hero for aiding in killing him?" Harry asked, his question all but rhetorical, but Elaine answered it nonetheless.
"He was always arrogant, wasn't he?" Elaine asked back, a brow raised as she began to work her wand once more. It wasn't hard to picture the magic of the wards giving way to her precision and power. Just about anything else did whensoever they had to deal with magic or a Magical.
"This would be beyond arrogant, it would be stupid," Harry gestured to the stone building with Dumbledore's likeness. "There should be traps or something beyond these little wards if they're meant to keep us away. Really, all he's done is give away the location of whatever's here. I thought he was meant to be smarter than that?"
"We'll see soon enough, lover," Elaine said with a grin as she held out one delicate-looking hand.
Harry shook his head but couldn't completely suppress how impressed he was with how quickly she did away with the protective magic guarding the building. She worked quicker and quicker, he swore. There was nobody else that could have torn through wards that quickly and whilst holding a conversation short of the person who was entombed in the place they were about to break into.
"Ladies first… is what I'd usually say, but if there's something dangerous, I'll go first," Harry took Elaine's hand and moved past her before she could speak. "Just be sure to undo whatever I miss that hits me, yeah?"
"I doubt anything will harm you when we're together. Raise your shield, I'll keep a mass of transfigured and animated pets nearby — no, I don't plan on raising the dead," Elaine added the lattermost sentence when Harry began to raise a hand in objection, and when she did, he laughed as he lowered that very same hand.
It was only Elaine that was able to predict him as she just had. It was impressive, and that word was starting to both him on account of how often it accompanied thoughts of her. Wait.
"You're still in my mind, aren't you?" Harry asked as he paused a few steps from the doorway, the gate of it now opened inwards.
"Why would you think that?" Elaine asked back innocently as she batted her eyelashes and smiled up at him.
That was all the answer he needed. She was definitely still perusing the landscape that was his mind, only, without force or anything else that might alert him to her actions. "You haven't been poking around too much, have you?"
"Please. I saw much and more when first we met years ago, and more again on the train or thereabouts. I've known your middle name and your true identity for far longer than when I spoke up. I've even seen the creature or being that's haunted your dreams on occasion. If there was anything else that I needed to know about your person, I would know it — that isn't to say the same about your friend. Whatsoever you spoke with her about, eludes me," Elaine sighed and shook her head, and within a second, she reset herself and looked back at Harry with her eyes flickering between him and the archway. "Now, shall we?"
"Now that you've dropped all of that on me, sure, let's get a move on. I'd like to clear this place as fast as we can so that we stand a chance at finding wherever he hid his… Horcrux, I think you said," Harry finished and immediately trailed off in thought; if there was one person Harry trusted more than any other when it came to information such as that, it was Corene.
Corene hadn't been by and with him alone at length for quite some time. There was a chance that she didn't even know what this magic was. It could be well beyond her capabilities or connections. Harry would find out the truth of that and he would go about spending time with her as he used to — maybe another night with mugs of hot chocolate and freshly baked biscuits before a fireplace. That sounded like it would make for a nice and relaxing night.
Harry took in one more deep breath, the bite of the cold air waking him up as it raced through his body, and finally, after much delay right at the entrance, he moved into Dumbledore's resting place with his wand raised. As Elaine had suggested, he had a shield so that he wasn't easily taken by nought but one spell, and as she said, her transfigured and animated friends were moving in a bitingly fast circle around their persons. They were ready ti intercept any danger at a moment's notice, and finally, Elaine herself was working alongside Harry whilst he scanned for physical traps and kept his shield empowered so that it would protect them both; Elaine's efforts weren't wasted when, after a moment, she picked up on a small, almost imperceivable combination of runes that were very near to Harry's feet as he'd moved ever inwards into the room.
They were deactivated based on their looks, but Elaine didn't trust that. She made sure that Harry stood still and moved right up beside him. Their bodies were squashed together on account of her transfigured friends and the large stone walls that surrounded them, but she was just able to wave her wand over the runes whilst muttering in a language that he did not understand.
It wasn't like that of her typical Latin spells or a few creations that were made in English or Old English.
"We'll have to deal with them before we continue — they're waiting for enough ambient magic from our castings to build up, and from what I did to the wards alone, they're probably well on their way to being ready," Elaine slowly pushed Harry from the room and trailed after him, their animated allies covering the entrance in its entirety. "I think it'd be best if we allowed whatever that effect is to go off with one or two of our animated protectors."
"Let's move back a bit then. If we're being that cautious since it might be dangerous, we should make sure we're far enough away that whatever strikes doesn't deal with the both of us," Harry said as he grabbed her hand and moved them further, but Elaine dug her heels into the dirt and shook her head.
When he turned to look at her so that he could ask why she did so, she was already shaking her head. "We'll be fine where we currently are, I'm certain of that. I'm imagining that whatsoever it was that we found was to act as some sort of warning or activation. If it were anything that large, there would be more signs. It's very hard to hide something that's overly dangerous or powerful."
She'd know about wards more than I would.
Harry looked at her in thought for a few seconds before he relented, but he didn't do so completely. "I'll transfigure a bit of a barrier for us so that we're fine. This could be from Grindelwald, and if that's the case, we shouldn't underestimate anything we find."
Elaine rolled her eyes but didn't attempt to talk him out of what his decision was. She went with it and watched, amused, as he went about ensuring they were protected from anything and everything that might do them harm. Within a minute, they had a large earthen barrier that acted as a solid, thick cover thanks to the cold ground and Harry even went so far as to transfigure a couch. If he were given more time, he would have likely thrown down a fire with a scheme to hide and dissipate the smoke, but that wasn't needed.
It was only another minute past what it had taken him to transfigure all that he had before there was a flash of light, a muted explosion and a second flash of light from Dumbledore's resting place. Whatever had been waiting for them had been set off, and by the time he got to his feet, Elaine was already racing towards the entrance with her wand out and giddy laughter filling the air.
She seemed far more excited to deal with this than any person had any right to be.
"Well?" Harry called forward to her as she came to a stop at the entrance. "What was it? What happened?"
Elaine huffed and folded her arms as she turned to look back at him. "There's absolutely nothing here save for a few scorch marks that did away with the runes that we found. I imagine the first flash was to stun somebody, the muted sound we heard was to blow them up or away, and the second light could have been meant to scare them again or to reset the runes — I don't see any sign of the latter."
"Why don't we check below his coffin before we go into it?" Harry asked as he finally made it back to his spot alongside Elaine.
"Under it?"
"Under it," he confirmed.
Elaine looked at him curiously. "What do you imagine lies beneath his coffin? We've seen no sign short of the magic that was set here for us to believe there's anything of note. Don't you find that odd? There should be something — anything — if Grindelwald meant to leave a valuable item here, you said as much yourself."
"If we're here, we should check it thoroughly and by our own means," Harry said back to her. "You were the one that said we had a limited amount of time and raced us over here. Let's make sure it's empty, for good, and then we can go and check… I've actually got an idea. We'll have to get home for it, but I think I might know a couple of people that might just be able to help us."
"That would mean that I know them," Elaine said immediately.
"Fine. They're fond of me more so than they are of you, so if they know anything, I can find out and we can move from there," Harry nodded towards the underside of the coffin. "You can look in it or what have you. I'll check below it, so that I can make sure everything's fine before we leave. We'll probably want to speak with McMacson too, just in case he's found anything or heard some news that we've not gotten."
"So demanding. You're lucky I love you," Elaine teased as she lazily moved the top of the coffin to the side in peaked in with disinterested eyes whilst Harry examined the entire bottom side of the very same coffin.
He didn't peek in to see what she saw. He traced the entire bottom border of the coffin and he did so a second time whilst seeking out anything of note. There was no magic, no stone that seemed to be a different colour or shape, no cracks that could have hidden away a secret and no stone that felt soft to the touch; all was normal, and that in and of itself was completely devastating.
Why had somebody — who was probably Grindelwald — put up defensive magic and runes over Dumbledore's grave if there was nothing of note? It seemed strange, almost as if there was a piece of the puzzle that they were missing.
"There's nothing in here short of his corpse and wand, in case you were wondering," Elaine said as she started to tap the stone lid. "This was infuriating. Enough so that I'm glad we've already killed the man behind this. I do wish we could have unlocked all of the secrets of his mind. Another time, maybe."
"Another time, definitely, if we don't find what you have us looking for," Harry answered as he got to his feet and rolled his neck before moving towards the exit with Elaine in front of him.
When they were out and the gate was closed, she grinned at him in silence. It was clear that she was teasing him about the extra five to ten minutes he had them spend in Dumbledore's resting place.
"I hope you know since this isn't all over quite yet that we're not getting our vacation from the Ministry," Harry said with a shake of his head.
Elaine snorted. "If I want you for a night, we each know that you'll not say no."
"One night isn't one week, and until we find Grindelwald whilst he's weak, our position in the Ministry is off-balance. He has to go — come on, let's go home, we can work everything out as soon as we're someplace warm and we've got some food in us," Harry grabbed Elaine's hand, but she turned him before he could apparate them home.
"Silly boy," she said to him, going so far as to tap him on his nose before she stole a kiss. "We'll return to the Ministry first. Your friend will be expecting us and we'll see what he knows. Whatever information he possesses will be used for us to discover Grindelwald's Horcruxes, and I suspect by now that he has two or three of them."
You haven't even said what made you suspect he had one.
Harry yawned and blinked his eyes a few times. With everything having happened already and the excitement of the day now over, he was beginning to feel tired. Whenever he fought somebody that was powerful and that fight lasted for quite some time, he would be absolutely knackered by the evening — they had attacked relatively late, or early, too.
"You can apparate us. I'll take us home, but I'm guessing since Laddey didn't call to us, they didn't find what we were looking for either," Harry pointed out.
"Of course, they wouldn't. I doubted it would even be here, close as it was to Grindelwald's rundown manor. It would be too close and too easy, but it was best to check instead of leaving it up in the air," Elaine grabbed his hand, smiled at him, and finally, apparated the pair of them away.
They had killed Grindelwald again, his followers were destroyed to the last save for a couple of prisoners, and now, they were hunting items of importance the likes of which they had little to no information about.
Harry cursed every being in the world for never letting anything go his way that wasn't directly related to Elaine. It simply wasn't fair.
"We searched the entire building and didn't find anything of note… well, anything of note to you. There was much and more that we found that was interesting, that's for sure, we simply didn't find anything that seemed inherently dark," McMacson took a sip from his glass of victory whiskey and paused for a few seconds in thought before he ultimately spoke up once more. "Now that he's dead again and crime is nearly gone overnight, I can say with absolute certainty that we can have search teams sent to all of the locations that we now know about."
"I don't think any of those will aid us in finding what we're after if we mean to stop him, but I do believe it'll be helpful. Leave the artefact hunting to Harry and I should you come across anything, Director," Elaine said as she grabbed one of Harry's hands to hold.
McMacson blinked at her. "If it's not helping you two find what you're after, how's it helpful beyond raiding an empty building for looted goods?"
"You might find caches that were meant for Grindelwald when he returned," Harry said before Elaine could speak up; they had spoken about this themselves and that was one of the chief things that came up. "Anything you find that's precious, that's helpful or even mildly important to us is perfect. What'll Grindelwald do in a world where he's lost everything and everybody?"
"We can return the missing belongings to the cultures they belong to so that we might foster good relations with many different governments. I believe the French, the Polish and the Soviets were plundered most of all, weren't they?" Elaine didn't need to ask for verification, she already knew the answer and Harry did too.
There was so much they had learned in the hour they had been back. Who would have thought as the Minister, the moment you make it to the Ministry, you'd practically be forced to your office and fed information non-stop until you ordered the next person to wait?
Harry knew there was a reason he didn't want to be in charge, anybody who willingly volunteered to have that much of their time taken up was mad.
"I would think so," McMacson offered as he raised his glass once more, this time taking a longer lip as he spoke with Harry and Elaine.
"We'll make close friends with all three and in doing so, we'll reaffirm our national interests whilst projecting a message that we're still here, capable and strong as ever. During that time, I'll be giving you and all of the other Directors of importance powers beyond what is typical so that you all might work in tandem whilst Harry and I finish off the few remnants of Grindelwald's legacy," Elaine kissed Harry's cheek and wound their hands tighter together before she spoke her final words to McMacson. "If you're able to see everything through while we're making sure Grindelwald is dead for good, I'm sure we can find a place for you in my direct office — what would you think about being assigned as my Chief Advisor?"
That was a bit more than we had spoken about on the walk here. Still, she's smart to keep him on our side. McMacson has a lot of friends and without them, we're weaker than just with her friends and those that enjoy my family name.
"I think that would be splendid. If you need anything from me, anything at all, please let me know. I'd like Grindelwald dead as much as the rest of you, and whatever I need to do to see that through, I'll do it," McMacson slammed the last of his drink and grinned at them, but this time, the look was anything but happy. "If you think you can spare it, me and Urban would fancy a few hits against the man. He took a lot from our Head Auror, and he killed far too many of our people for that to go by unpunished."
"If we can let you get a chance to strike at him, you'll have it, and if we can't, I'll make sure a get a few spells in for the entirety of our department. One way or another, once we have that item, that'll be the end of him — when that happens, I think my life's goal will be to remove his name from every page of history that's ever written. Nobody will know of him, they won't discuss him, he'll be a nameless Dark Lord that sought power and died along with all those who followed after him. It's what he deserves," Harry stood up when he finished and made towards Elaine.
She had already been moving away and to the door that would lead them out of McMacson's office on account of her earlier words having been the last of what she wanted to say, but Harry had stayed in his seat until the conversation was truly over. McMacson was a good friend and a better man, and if he could keep the man as a friend and assure him that all those who had died following them were avenged, he would gladly do so. There came a point that his words weren't even solely for McMacson either, for Harry, they meant a great deal to him too.
Grindelwald had taken one of his best friends away and injured — grievously and thanks to his followers — another. That would never go by unpunished, and two times now, it hadn't.
"It's what he deserves," McMacson agreed with a raised glass and a solemn look on his face as he undoubtedly remembered the fallen right alongside Harry.
They would never be forgotten.
"So what's the plan now?" Harry asked Elaine as soon as they were out of McMacson's office.
Elaine leaned against the wall once the door was shut behind her and relaxed against it. "We'll rest after a good meal at home, and then, on the morrow, we'll continue with our work."
"I'll write those letters tonight — there's a few people who just might know a thing or two, like I said," Harry added as he relaxed against the wall with Elaine, their hands finding one another as they finally had the chance to take a breath somewhere that wasn't cold or potentially overrun with errant wards and other magic by Grindelwald. "Aren't you a bit surprised?"
"Surprised?" Elaine repeated with one brow raised. "What would I be surprised about?"
"How easily he died this second time. I mean, what was the whole point of what he did if he was just going to die in that very same spot?" Harry shook his head. That still didn't make any sense to him, and it hadn't stopped being bothersome.
Maybe he was getting inside of his own head too much, but Grindelwald wasn't an idiot. Harry knew the man had it in him to be incredibly smart.
"I doubt he thought we'd arrive with assistance that would prove as helpful as they were. Had they not arrived shortly thereafter, maybe he had a plan in place. Regardless, his thoughts, desires and motivations don't matter. All I care to have is his soul elsewhere. His time on our planet's run its course," Elaine pushed off from the wall and grabbed Harry's hand. "Let's go home before we take this to your office."
Harry cracked a grin. "That tired, yeah?"
"I'd like to take a warm bath, enjoy a hot meal and a wonderfully comfortable bed alongside my other half. It would be beyond imaginable and even now, I yearn for the closeness we had that night — I'd kill anybody who dared to try and stop it," Elaine brought a hand up to cover her mouth as he heard a bit of a giggle. She recovered, cocked her head at him, and tried — successfully — to look as cute as she could. "I love you."
He pulled her towards his office so that they might use the floo connection, and as he opened the door for her, he returned those very same words.
"I love you too."
And then they used the floo access to return to his home, whereupon doing so they ate, washed, went to bed and washed again. When the morning came, it brought with it all of the stress of yesterday and the additive stress of a timer with no number visible for them to see.
There was still so much to do and yet, at the same time, it felt as if they'd lived one whole life thus far.
"Nothing from any of your letters thus far?" Elaine asked as she came back from the bathroom dressed with her hair done up and ready for the day.
Harry shook his head. "I imagine with my requests, they'll take a few days at the least. I wouldn't be surprised if they could take up to a few weeks. I've asked for anything however minute it is, so Merlin only knows the sources they'll check and how tedious that will prove to be."
"I can't imagine your Goldhorn friends will have much to say — what was the man's name you mentioned, Gianus? You said he was in league with Grindelwald or that was the impression you had based on his person. If he's a 'family friend' as you said, why would they give anything up?" Elaine shook her head. "I don't see them betraying him."
"For once, you're wrong," Harry said cheekily, he couldn't even fight the grin from fighting its way onto his face.
Elaine opened her eyes wide and looked at him, amused. "How do you suppose?"
"I didn't ask them to betray him or offer up information that could be seen as detrimental to his person. All I asked — and I started out with general questions about their family — was if they had heard from him any time recently because I wanted to speak with him and potentially learn from him. He had hinted that I'd be welcome, and so if that's still the case, I'd be very interested in what he knows about Grindelwald," Harry paused, took a breath and elaborated on the other two that he had written to; one was very obvious and likely wouldn't offer up quite as much help. "Corene's Corene, and so I figured if there's anything she might know, I'd better check. Who knows, maybe she'll surprise us both and have something that we didn't think about. Slughorn's father, the third person I wrote to, he's a wildcard."
"He's an old man who isn't half as easy to control as his son. His insane, near-innate hatred for me is just as absurd as he is. What do you possibly think he might offer up that's useful, and why?" Elaine drew closer to Harry quickly, and he could hear in her tone immediately that she was not fond of learning or speaking about that man. It didn't matter if he had anything to offer, to her, Slughorn's father was the likes of Marcus Potter or some of the other troublesome people they'd experienced.
"He knew a spell about necromancy that was… very interesting. If I can't learn anything about Grindelwald from him and his extensive contacts, at the very least, I can trade knowledge with him so that we might further expand our spellbooks with spells that may very well be one-of-a-kind or exceedingly rare. Doesn't that sound good to you too?" Harry finally set down his glass and moved away from his toast, his arm on the back of the chair beside him so that he could turn and look at Elaine more easily.
Her eyes were narrowed, her hands were clasping one another, and she was paused on her way over to him. "No."
"No, it doesn't sound good to you?" he asked for clarification.
Elaine shook her head. "You misunderstood me — no, that's not happening."
Harry snorted and went back to his toast. "It is. There's no reason for it not to happen. You've explained to me before that, despite my dislike for abraxas, he's helpful on account of the information and money his family possess. Why would you throw away that same aid, far more, in fact, just because the man dislikes you? He won't even see or speak with you, only me."
Elaine dropped into the chair beside Harry and looked at him intently. She wasn't very pleased, and it wasn't hard to tell why — he half thought she was about to tell him no again — but she rolled her eyes and grabbed his left hand before he could move it elsewhere.
"Do as you'd please, but do so carefully," Elaine pressed a kiss against his cheek and it was then that he saw how red her face was; maybe he had misunderstood her anger for something else.
Whatever it was, he would, without a doubt, be laying with Elaine frequently for a myriad of reasons, most of all her moods for the day that followed. She would never give up an argument that easily in the past, and yet, now, she had done so and contented herself in being by his side. If that was how she'd be, there was nothing he could do in the world to ruin that.
"You're amusing in the morning," Elaine quipped as she stole a bit of egg from his plate rather than eat those that were on her own plate.
Harry looked at her. "How's that?"
"Your mind and your actions, they're always so unorganised and when we speak, you're shorter and more to the point rather than wordsy as the day progresses," she patted him on the thigh and when he made to turn towards her, he felt her syrup-covered lips press against his own.
She usually tasted like apples, her favourite fruit and a food that, by this time in their relationship, he had begun to notice more and more often whensoever she ate. This time, it tasted like maple syrup and it was sticky too.
"Do you think we'll ever be able to avoid having to go to the Ministry, Hogwarts, villages and what have you when we're finished hunting his Horcrux or Horcruxes?" Harry asked, changing the topic on account of the day finally getting to a proper start; they were up, fed, showered and ready for the first day of hunting down what remained of that monster's soul.
I suppose that answers the question of whether or not he had one.
"When he's finished, we'll be able to do whatever we want however we'd like, and there would be nobody able to stop us. I know that isn't something that appeals to you even a quarter as much as it does to me, and for that, my love, we'll do only what you'd like to the majority of the time. On occasion, those that cause problems for us or the children, grandchildren, great-children and so on that we have, will have to be dealt with in a permanent way," Elaine smiled and patted his thigh one more time with her free hand. "I hope that answered your question, my love, now, are you going to have that apple tort?"
He blinked a few times to register her words, he blinked a few more times in the hopes that he could understand what her future plans were — and how far ahead she was planning — and finally, he huffed and pushed the tort towards her.
"Have it, you tart."
Elaine kissed his cheek and pulled back with her prize. "Act like you mind, we're both well aware of the truth, especially when I peek into your mind du—"
"Don't say it."
They laughed together, and as they did, Harry couldn't help but wish he could go back in time… that was pretty funny to him, all things considered; he only laughed harder.